We get to save on travel time, gas usage, and wear our PJ’s while we work.  We can work in the middle of the night (as I am now) or from our laptop on the beach.  Working remotely provides a flexibility to work when we most feel like it, which I can attest leads to the best results for our customers.  

So, when you talk to us, or receive an email at 2 am, we could be in Victoria, Hawaii or tucked away on a saiboat in a quiet cove in the Gulf Islands. 

We are excited to move forward with our new structure and plan on having yearly “retreats” to stay connected and of course play competitive board games.

On the one hand, this does provide more privacy for people browsing the web and searching on Google, but also limits your ability to fully understand how people are finding your website. 

The keywords that people use to find your site help determine whether your advertising or optimization is paying off.  They can also give insight as to whether you need to write additional content to capture more traffic from those related keywords.

There isn’t anything we can do about this, but I thought it was worthwhile for me to note since the “(not provided)” statistic is only going to increase.

Maybe I’m just “old school” and don’t really use my iPhone for much other than calling, emailing and some web browsing, but I just can’t be bothered to take a photo of a QR code.  It seems faster to me to just write down the information I need or type in the website address.

In theory, I like the idea.  Plus, they are cute and mysterious looking, like some ancient symbol from aliens.  But, they are not for me.  Not yet anyways. :)

I think what would make them far more useful and enticing is if people put WHY I should scan them.  Usually they are just added without any direction or incentive.  For example, it could say: "Scan this code for additional photos of this property" or "Scan this code for a $20 coupon".  That would make it more interesting for me!  Maybe I'd become a QR lover then.

I don’t mind fixing this problem for people, it’s good business.  But I feel sad that so many people think this is a viable solution.  It can be, but in practice, it’s not.  Hence why I don’t recommend it for anyone.

Like most things in life, if you just focus on price in the short-term you’ll likely pay more and have more headaches in the future. 

If you are running Wordpress and your site has become compromised, please let us know and we can help.  Part of the solution may be to switch to a more secure CMS and hosting account that isn’t wide open for abuse.

Take Clearly Contacts for example: I used to only see their ads on the sky-train and then my girlfriend visited their website.  Now, almost every ad I see when I browse the web is for Clearly Contacts.  They are relentless!

I believe what has happened is that we have been flagged by their website to Google, letting Google know that we are interested in glasses and would be very happy to pay for us to come back to their site and make a purchase. 

As we browse the web, Google attempts to bring us back to past websites we’ve visited in order to convert us into a sale.  Increased relevancy should leads to increased clicks, which means more money for Google and potentially the advertiser in getting a returning visitor who completes the sale.

If you currently have a Google Adwords campaign then this “remarketing” feature is already available for you to use.  You simply need to define some “audiences” and assign those audiences to different pages on your site.  For example, if you sell glasses then you would define a “glasses” audience and place the tracking code on your pages pertaining to glasses.

If you would like to nudge previous visitors of your website to come back through the use of advertisements or just want to keep fresh in their minds, give remarketing a try.

Learn more and watch a video by visiting Google’s help page here.

By the way, my girlfriend did buy lots from clearlycontacts.ca afterall.

We have lots planned for 2012 and hopefully we all enjoy good health, abundance, cooperation, peace, love and hopefully the world doesn’t come to an end.  Let’s kick some butt and make the best of it!

Happy New Year!

I now have all our company files instantly synced onto our office network server (for everyone to use when at the office), on my home computer (for working at home) and on my laptop (for when I’m traveling).  I have everything I need to be productive wherever I am regardless of whether I have high-speed internet or am tethered to my iPhone. 

Working on the actual computer I’m using (instead of remotely) is also way quicker than via Remote Desktop.  I can use Photoshop (which is virtually impossible over Remote Desktop) and I can use multiple monitors (which is also impossible over Remote Desktop).

Dropbox is free if you have only a few gigs of data to sync, and is fairly inexpensive if you have 100’s of gigs.  We’re using the 100GB plan and that should be good for a while.

It’s also really easy to setup.  Just create an account, install the software on each of the computers that you want the files synced on, choose what folders to sync and you’re done.  When you update a file on any of the computers, Dropbox will update the other computers usually within seconds.

Dropbox also makes sharing files with other people very simple, we use this all the time when providing larger files to clients.

If you work from multiple computers and want to have your files easily available amongst them, or simply want an online backup of your data… give Dropbox a try.

Vortex CMS Shopping Cart can be integrated with Quickbooks such that your orders, products and customers are automatically imported and synchronized saving you hours of manual work.

Using Webgility’s eCC software with Vortex CMS you can also integrate your shipping processor (ie. Fedex, USPS, etc.) and your payment processor into one streamlined application.

If you are manually creating your online orders, please talk to us about how to make the process easier and quicker for you.  The cost to setup integration can vary from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the complexity of your online store, whether you want inventory tracking and payment processing, etc.  However, the cost to setup integration will no doubt pay for itself in accumulated time savings and improved customer service.

To learn more, please contact us.

Howard & Darryl each took home the grand prize of a Costco fuzzy blanket and Ashley (the most experienced player) took home a multi-pack of Dental Floss for being in last place.

We also learned that Dan can juggle 5 golf balls and that 20 golf balls is not nearly enough for 5 players when there are lots of water traps.

The highlight reel would have included Howards amazing drive off the tee where the ball went straight into the water, skipped along the surface, and flew down the fairway onto the green.  I tried to recreate that shot (on purpose of course) but my shot just stayed in the water…

Next time we will hit up the driving range beforehand to see if that helps improve performance.  It’s only a matter of time before we’re winning championships!  Or perhaps we should start a softball team instead… for now, we’ll get back to doing something we are good at: making websites.

However, we have found that using WordPress to manage your website is like taking a toaster, finding a bunch of other appliances, combining them together until you have a spaceship and hoping it flies.

So unless you have a very basic website or want to setup a blog, we do not recommend WordPress. 

What we do recommend is Vortex CMS, a platform that was created specifically for maintaining simple to complex websites, not just a blog, which provides a much faster and easier way to develop and maintain your site.

Although some of the features WordPress is missing can be handled with “plugins” they take much longer to find, configure and integrate with your website than Vortex and have so many features it takes someone very experienced in websites to understand it all.   

The ongoing costs of having WordPress is also slightly higher in our experience since although WordPress is free it still requires someone to maintain it and support it, which WordPress doesn’t provide for free.  It needs regular attention to keep ahead of all the security loop holes caused by the mishmash of plugins and open source code.

I asked Howard what he thinks about setting up WordPress for our customers:

“I don't see a point in using Wordpress since it's less convenient for the customer (loads slower, too many unneeded / confusing features), and we would just be trying to hack together a less integrated version of Vortex in the end.” 

Ultimately WordPress is a publishing platform best suited to blogs and simple content websites. 

To discuss the options or to see a live demonstration between WordPress and Vortex CMS please contact us.

It’s secure and easy to use.  Here’s how it works:  customers add products to their shopping cart, checkout and choose INTERAC Online as their payment option, review their order and then are transferred to their bank to authorize the payment by logging into their Online Banking, and then are sent back to your website to view their receipt. 

This service could also be setup on your website to allow customers to pay invoices online directly out of their bank account instead of mailing a cheque.

Many payment gateways are offering the service, such as Beanstream, and I highly recommend adding it to your shopping cart in addition to accepting credit cards.  

Currently the service is available for customers with accounts at RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust and BMO Bank of Montreal. 

Please contact us if you would like to discuss adding INTERAC Online as a payment option on your website.

® Trade-mark of Interac Inc. Used under license.

This doesn’t surprise me considering how many global companies are offering website design & development outsourcing.  I have also heard of web companies (and others) that are basically just a sales front while all the work is done overseas. 

It’s therefore also not surprising that so many businesses that find us have been sorely disappointed with their previous service provider. 

I hear these concerns: it takes weeks to get a response, little alone anything done; they said it wasn’t possible or they said they could do it but couldn’t actually deliver what we asked.

I think there is good reason to ensure that the people you’re dealing with when finding a new website service provider are actually the people doing the work.   I’m not offended when people ask “are you actually Azaris or just some broker?” or “Are you the programmers we will work with or are they in India?”

We are proudly located in Victoria, BC! And we don’t outsource our work.

PCI Compliant means that your business and website are certified to meet the industry standards for protecting your customer’s credit card information.

The PCI Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) are set by the Security Standards Council.

You may be at risk for fraud, computer hackers or fines from your merchant provider if you don’t maintain PCI Compliance.

To become PCI Compliant your website needs to undergo rigorous networking vulnerability testing on a regular basis, software hacking testing, and denial of service testing. These tests ensure your website is secure against hackers and automated scripts targeting the most popular “open source” software which may be putting your customers at risk for fraud.

The requirements for becoming PCI Compliant vary based on the number of credit card transactions you process in a year.  If you process less than 20,000 online credit card transactions per year, you are able to certify PCI Compliance by completing a self-assessment questionnaire and undergoing routine website vulnerability scanning.

It’s important that you choose a company that can provide your business PCI Compliant web hosting and a content management system or ecommerce platform that meets the PCI Data Security Standards for how it processes and stores sensitive information.

We can help you certify your business and website as PCI Compliant.  Whether needing to switch your website to a more secure host, or creating a new ecommerce website, we are ready to meet your needs and adhere to the industry standards for managing payment data.

Contact us anytime to certify your business and website as PCI Compliant.

The problem is that InDesign is not really meant for the web… it is meant for creating really awesome print layouts with great control over typography and such.

On the web you need precise pixel accuracy so that what you design looks exactly as you intended when it’s programmed for the web.  Here are some guidelines to help ensure InDesign files are provided to us in the best format that will not cause any unexpected surprises.

1. Edit your “Units & Increments” preferences so that horizontal and vertical rulers are in pixels instead of picas.
2. Create your page with a minimum width of 1200 pixels and height of 900 pixels.  The width of the actual website layout should be around 980 pixels.  You can use the remaining space on either side of the template to design your background.  Decide whether elements will span 100% or be within a fixed width (keep in mind that web browsers widths are unknown and variable whereas print has a fixed width!)
3. Set a document grid in preferences with a horizontal and vertical gridline every 100px with 10 subdivisions.   Ensure that all of your design elements are lined up and snapped to the grid. 
4. Put common design elements such as navigation and the logo on a page master so that they are consistent throughout all your design layouts.
5. Export as a PDF when previewing or sharing the designs.
6. When ready to have the website developed save your document as a “Package” and include all fonts, images etc.  Zip the folder up and send it to us for programming!  If you are unable to provide the source files in a package you can also provide a PDF or EPS. 

If you have any questions about using InDesign for the web, give us a shout!

With Shipwire, all of your orders are automatically packaged and shipped from their global warehouses.  This is a major time saving as well as cost saving.  Customers purchase your products online using the Vortex Shopping Cart, and then Shipwire takes care of the rest automatically.  Perfect!

For more information on Shipwire and how we can integrate their service with your ecommerce website, please contact us.

For customers using Vortex, we added a module which lists your domains and displays where they were registered, when they expire and whether they are set to automatically renew.

If you would like us to make managing your domains easier by consolidating and having them automatically renew each year, please contact us and we'll take care of it right away.

It has been an Azaris tradition to have an epic staff Christmas party at The Empress but this year I wanted to top it.  Oceanview rooms, gourmet restaurants, endless day and evening activities, all in a spectacular settings - what a great way to end the year.

I'm looking forward to catching waves on the Hobie cat with my girlfriend, trying out our new walkie talkies, and playing volley ball with my team.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't expect to hear from us the week of December 6th! (Actually, poor Howard volunteered to stay behind and take care of everything for us... what a trooper!)

The Dietetic Meal Planning System is an all-in-one meal planning/dietetic system built specifically for Registered Dietitians. This web software allows Dieticians to create personalized 7-day meal plans for individuals, analyze foods and recipes within seconds, and calculate daily calories and essential nutrients. Nutrient values are shown in a Daily Nutrition Facts Table and as a 7-day Average. Each completed meal plan includes a print out of the client’s 7-day menu, healthy recipes, and a weekly grocery list.

Key Features of the Dietetic Meal Planning System:

• Contains a nutrient database of over 6000 commonly used foods
• You have the option to add foods, food ingredients, and specific brands of your choice
• Contains 30 of our favourite healthy recipes to get you started
• You have the option to create and add your own healthy recipes
• Contains 44 health groups with specific calorie and daily nutrient targets
• You have the option to create new health groups based on your clients individual dietary needs, i.e. Healthy Weight Loss, Heart Health, Diabetes, Vegetarian, Pregnancy, etc.
• Meal Plans include a weekly grocery list, containing every food & ingredient the client will need to follow the plan for the week
• You have the ability to copy meal plans to use as a template for additional meal plans, e.g. family or group meal plans
• Our Contact Manager gives you the ability to store your clients’ personal information and send mass emails

Registered Dieticians:
Sign up for a FREE 30 day trial!

www.dieteticmealplanner.com